House Committee Plans SOPA Hearing on January 18th, Senate Version of Bill (PIPA) Heading to Senate

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced a Jan. 18 hearing on the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on the Internet on Monday, escalating the feud within the Republican Party over the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

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Issa has been a harsh critic of SOPA, banding together with fellow Judiciary Committee members Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to successfully stall a two-day marathon December markup by endlessly debating a slew of amendments to the legislation.

A companion bill in the Senate, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, appears to be on the fast track. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.) has said that he plans to introduce PIPA to the senate floor for consideration on January 24 despite a threat to filibuster the legislation by Sens. Maria Cantwell, (D-Wash.,) Jerry Moran (R-Kan.,) Rand Paul (R-Ky.,) and Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.)

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.